“President Joe Biden’s campaign ramped up spending aggressively in March, flexing his cash advantage over former President Donald Trump with massive media buys,” Politico reports.
“Biden’s campaign spent $29.2 million in March alone, according to campaign finance records filed late Monday night. That’s more than four times the amount he spent in the previous month, when he dropped about $6.3 million.”
“His campaign still managed to add to its cash total, however, thanks to $43.8 million in new contributions, more than half of which came to the campaign through joint fundraising committees.”
“Senate Democrats’ campaign arm is launching a $79 million advertising plan that’s aimed at holding onto the majority this fall — alongside spending by a key party super PAC and individual candidates,” Politico reports.
“Donald Trump’s money machine ramped up in the first quarter of 2024, with the Republican National Committee raking in millions from a new joint fundraising arrangement,” Politico reports.
“Trump’s own joint fundraising committee separately reported raising $65 million, a total nearly double its 2023 pace that will nonetheless still leave him well behind President Joe Biden in the money race.”
New York Times: “Major Republican donors have begun to open their checkbooks for Donald Trump now that he is the presumptive nominee, as he struggles to keep pace with President Biden.”
“As former President Donald Trump sifts through potential running mates, he has peppered some advisers and associates with a direct question: Which Republican could best help him raise money for the rest of the presidential campaign?,” the New York Times reports.
“That inquiry reflects the evolving calculations of Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential search — and how his scramble to keep up with President Biden’s colossal fund-raising totals may be weighing on his mind as he considers his options.”
Politico: “Democrats say they have the convention’s logistics under control and are confident Chicago Police and federal officials will be able to manage the protesters.”
“About 400 Democratic Party officials will meet in Chicago this week, beginning Tuesday, to learn more about the convention in August at the United Center and to name the members of the platform, rules and credentials committees,” the Chicago Sun Times reports.
“No major floor fights are anticipated inside the arena during the convention, where President Joe Biden will be nominated for a second term.”
“Outside the United Center, though, will be another story. Protesters are already gearing up to demonstrate against Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, with some saying they will attempt to shut down the convention.”
“While Donald Trump remains in a New York courtroom, President Joe Biden is taking his campaign to Pennsylvania, the biggest battleground of the 2024 election, to hammer the former president over his tax policies in an appeal to working-class voters,” USA Today reports.
“Biden will begin a three-day swing through Pennsylvania on Tuesday with a trip to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he will deliver a speech blasting Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans while calling for the rich to pay their ‘fair share.’”
New York Times: “Democrats hope that the contrast of Mr. Biden campaigning and carrying out the duties of a president while Mr. Trump’s lawyers plead his innocence will highlight the choice voters face in November.”
Associated Press: Biden returns to his Scranton roots to pitch tax plan.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday alleged in a social media post that allies of Donald Trump reached out to him about joining the Republican presidential ticket as Trump’s running mate, something the former president’s campaign has denied, The Hill reports.
Said Kennedy: “President Trump calls me an ultra-left radical. I’m soooo liberal that his emissaries asked me to be his VP. I respectfully declined the offer.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he met the requirements to appear on Iowa’s general election ballot in November following a “convention” he held in West Des Moines Saturday, the Des Moines Register reports.
Mark Leibovich: “By the time we met at the end of March, Newsom had fashioned himself as a kind of presidential super-surrogate — a chief alleviator of fears about Biden’s lagging poll numbers, advanced age, and ability to again defeat Donald Trump.”
“But being a super-surrogate requires a performative humility, subordinating one’s own ambition to the candidate’s. This is not something that comes naturally to a restless dazzler such as Newsom.”
“The Teamsters union’s political action committee is jumping into the Missouri Senate race, contributing $5,000 to Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) re-election campaign,” Axios reports.
“In the past, the PAC has given overwhelmingly to Democrats, but Hawley has made a point to align himself with the labor movement, joining picket lines with the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers.”
NEW YORK 1ST DISTRICT. “A new campaign committee from disgraced former Rep. George Santos raised no money and reported no activity in March, calling into question his plans to return to Congress,” Politico reports.
INDIANA 5TH DISTRICT. State Rep. Chuck Goodrich’s new commercial for next month’s GOP primary utilizes material from a 2022 Politico article to argue that Rep. Victoria Spartz is an abusive boss. “Manic behavior,” says the narrator, continuing, “She yells and curses, calling them morons and idiots.” The spot goes on, “Victoria Spartz’s behavior is embarrassing. We don’t need politicians who lie and disrespect employees and lack the temperament for public service.”
FLORIDA 15TH DISTRICT. Far-right social media troll Rogan O’Handley told the conservative site The Floridian over the weekend that he’s decided not to challenge freshman Rep. Laurel Lee in the Aug. 20 Republican primary. The candidate filing deadline is April 26.
NORTH CAROLINA 13TH DISTRICT. A Republican running in a hotly contested runoff for an open House seat in North Carolina is about to find out whether her lead in the polls can withstand Donald Trump weighing in for her opponent.
Attorney Kelly Daughtry just released an early April internal poll giving her a wide 51-32 lead over former federal prosecutor Brad Knott in the May 14 runoff for the 13th District. Daughtry ought to be pleased because that represents a sizable improvement from her 41-37 edge in an unreleased March poll that was, like this latest survey, also conducted by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates.
But unfortunately for Daughtry, this newer poll was in the field mere days before Trump endorsed Knott on Truth Social. Trump also used his social media missive to blast Daughtry as someone who “has given money to Far Left Democrats, pledged to vote for Obama, and is no friend to MAGA.”
The News & Observer’s Danielle Battaglia explained in February that state and federal records showed Daughtry contributed a total of $2,550 to Democratic candidates since 1997. During that same timeframe, she also gave $44,000 to Republicans.
A super PAC funded by Knott’s family called the American Foundations Committee ran ads ahead of the March 5 primary charging that Daughty had given “thousands to woke Democrats,” and while this messaging wasn’t enough to stop her from outpacing Knott 27-19 on March 5, she still failed to secure the 30% she needed to win outright.
After the first round of voting, the conservative Carolina Journal surfaced a 2012 Facebook post in which Daughtry wrote, “I’m voting for Obama so I’m just saying but I do find a lot wrong with both parties.” In response, Daughtry said that, despite what she posted, she backed Mitt Romney that year.
Her campaign has also attacked Knott for serving as a federal prosecutor from 2016 through 2023, a tenure that was bookended by the Obama and Biden administrations. Knott, who told journalist Bryan Anderson that a Trump-picked U.S. Attorney turned his post from a temporary role into a full-time one, argued, “They are trying to paint me as someone who I’m not, an Obama-Biden lawyer.”
NEW HAMPSHIRE 2ND DISTRICT. State Sen. Becky Whitley announced Sunday that she would run to succeed retiring Rep. Annie Kuster, a fellow Democrat. Whitley says she’s raised $100,000 for her bid in her first week since forming an exploratory committee earlier this month.
Whitley, who has worked as a disability rights lawyer, joined the legislature in 2020 after winning a safely blue Senate seat, but she first had to get past a familiar name in the primary. To earn the nomination, she scored a 41-33 victory over former Rep. Paul Hodes, who was seeking a comeback a decade after his failed bid for the U.S. Senate.
WMUR wrote earlier this month that Whitley, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, has since “been on the legislative front lines” in battles to safeguard abortion rights. She joins a September primary that includes former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, who has Kuster’s endorsement.
But two would-be Democratic candidates, state Reps. Angela Brennan and Rebecca McWilliams, each said this week they’d seek to replace Whitley in the state Senate rather than run for Congress.
INDIANA 3RD DISTRICT. Winning for Women, a conservative super PAC largely funded by megadonor Ken Griffin, has launched a commercial accusing former Rep. Marlin Stutzman of being weak on border security. The spot does not mention former Judge Wendy Davis, whom Politico says the group supports in the May 7 Republican primary for this safely red seat in northeastern Indiana. According to reports filed with the FEC, WFW has spent $414,000 so far.
The offensive comes at a time when another super PAC, America Leads Action, is spending a similar amount to derail Stutzman’s comeback campaign. The former congressman’s allies at the far-right House Freedom Caucus have deployed $110,000 to return him to Congress after an eight-year absence, but most of that spending came last year.
INDIANA 8TH DISTRICT. Former Rep. John Hostettler is getting some welcome outside support from Protect Freedom PAC, which is airing commercials starring Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. There is no word yet as to how much the PAC is spending to promote Hostettler, who has been on the receiving end of at least $1.75 million in attacks from a trio of super PACs. Hostettler’s campaign, according to AdImpact data from Howey Politics, had not run any TV ads for the May 7 GOP primary as of April 5.
Paul uses the ad to tout Hostettler as someone who will resist “the politicians that are destroying America,” a crowd that, according to footage shown on-screen, includes Paul’s home state colleague, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Paul was elected to the upper chamber four years after Hostettler lost reelection in the 2006 blue wave, but his father, then-Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and Hostettler were part of a small group of House Republicans who opposed the Iraq War. The elder Paul went on to endorse Hostettler’s failed 2010 Senate primary campaign.
ALABAMA 2ND DISTRICT. The downballot primary season picks back up on Tuesday in Alabama’s revamped 2nd District, which is the only place in America that’s hosting a congressional nominating contest this week. Whoever wins the Democratic primary runoff will be favored in November to claim a constituency that, under the new map drawn by a federal court, is now a plurality Black district that would have backed Joe Biden 56-43.
Former Justice Department official Shomari Figures led state House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels 43-22 in the first round of voting on March 5. While Figures’ share of the vote was below the majority needed to win the Democratic nod outright, his performance established him as the frontrunner for the runoff.
Subsequent developments have only underscored the perception that Figures is the one to beat. State Rep. Napoleon Bracy, who took third place with 16%, went on to endorse him, and a late March Impact Research poll for an unknown client showed Figures beating Daniels 59-24.
Figures has once again gotten a major assist from Protect Progress, a super PAC with ties to the cryptocurrency industry that spent heavily on him ahead of the primary and has poured in another $900,000 for the runoff. The only pro-Daniels outside spending, by contrast, is about $50,000 from Progress for Alabama, a super PAC that Politico reports is run by Republican operative David Driscoll. Driscoll did not comment when Politico asked him about his interest in the race.
Each Democrat is arguing that the other has weak ties to this district, which now takes in Mobile, Montgomery, and the eastern Black Belt. Figures, who hails from a prominent political family in Mobile, has highlighted the fact that Daniels represents a legislative seat in Huntsville, far off in the northern part of the state.
Daniels, however, has emphasized his roots in the Montgomery area and pointed out that Figures only recently returned to Alabama after spending his career in and around the nation’s capital.
The GOP runoff pits former state Sen. Dick Brewbaker and attorney Caroleene Dobson. Brewbaker led Dobson 40-26 on March 5.
CALIFORNIA 16TH DISTRICT. D Election officials in California’s 16th Congressional District began the process for a machine recount of the March 5 top-two primary on Monday, but there are still big questions over just what will happen next in this wild race.
The Mercury News reports that Jonathan Padilla, who was a 2020 Biden delegate, paid the county a $12,000 deposit to start the recount. However, election administrators in Santa Clara County, which makes up over 80% of this Silicon Valley-based seat, tell KQED’s Guy Marzorati that it will cost $16,800 per day for what they estimate will be a five-day undertaking.
Their counterparts in San Mateo, which forms the balance of the 16th District, say it will take another $4,550 per day to recount its ballots, though they told Marzorati they hadn’t received a deposit as of Monday morning.
Marzorati writes that if Padilla misses a day’s payment, the recount would end and the results certified by the state earlier this month would stand. A second voter, Dan Stegink, had sought a recount as well, but he withdrew his request and did not put down the requisite deposit.
Padilla’s own plans have also changed somewhat, as he said he originally intended to seek a manual recount before opting for a machine recount. A manual recount is more likely to catch errors, but it’s also far more expensive.
Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, whom Padilla worked for in 2014, is guaranteed a spot in the November general election, while two other Democrats, Assemblyman Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, would both advance if they remain tied for second. Should a recount shift the results even a single vote for either runner-up, however, then Liccardo would face the second-place finisher in a one-on-one matchup.
WASHINGTON 4TH DISTRICT. Donald Trump on Friday endorsed former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler’s intra-party bid against Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is one of the two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 riot.
Trump’s backing makes Sessler, who waged an unheralded campaign two years ago, Newhouse’s only notable foe in what had been a quiet Aug. 6 top-two primary for Washington’s conservative 4th District. However, it remains to be seen whether Democrats will once again consolidate behind a single candidate as they did in 2022, a development that could make it tougher for one of the two Republicans to reach the November general election.
Newhouse’s own plans are also uncertain. Two months ago, the Seattle Times’ Jim Brunner relayed that there had been “rampant speculation in state Republican circles that Newhouse may be the next to announce his retirement.” The incumbent doesn’t appear to have confirmed his 2024 plans yet, though he tweeted out an endorsement from the National Federation of Independent Business on Monday. The candidate filing deadline isn’t until May 10, so it may still be a few weeks before the roster is set here.
Newhouse, who was elected to represent central Washington in 2014, attracted little attention during his first three terms in Congress, but all of that changed early in 2021 when he responded to the Jan. 6 attack riot by voting to impeach Trump.
“A vote against this impeachment is a vote to validate the unacceptable violence we witnessed in our nation’s capital,” he said in a statement. “It is also a vote to condone President Trump’s inaction.”
Sessler, who had raced in local NASCAR competitions that could be considered the equivalent of baseball’s minor leagues (his name does not come up when searching the auto sports database Racing-Reference.info), was one of several hard-right politicians who reacted by launching campaigns against the congressman. Trump, however, was far more impressed by 2020 gubernatorial nominee Loren Culp, a former cop who refused to recognize his decisive loss to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee.
Trump’s endorsement, though, didn’t do much to help Culp augment his weak fundraising numbers hauls. Newhouse’s allies at Defending Main Street, which is aligned with the GOP leadership, also spent over $1 million to boost the incumbent while the challenger received no major outside help. Sessler, who self-funded about $400,000 but raised little from donors, attracted comparatively little attention.
The 4th District had favored Trump 57-40 in 2020, but businessman Doug White benefited from being the only Democrat on the ballot in a top-two primary that featured seven Republicans. Newhouse and White took 25% apiece, while Culp and Sessler respectively grabbed 22% and 12%. That victory made Newhouse and California Rep. David Valadao the only two pro-impeachment Republicans to win renomination in a cycle that saw their eight fellow travelers either opt to retire or lose their own primaries.
Newhouse went on to easily beat White 66-31 in the general election (Valadao narrowly won in a more competitive seat), and he resumed his former role as a quiet conservative vote. The congressman even made it clear earlier this month that, despite saying three years ago that Trump “failed to fulfill his oath of office,” he’d support his return to the White House. Trump repaid him Friday with a Truth Social missive branding Newhouse “a weak and pathetic RINO named Newhouse, who voted to, for no reason, Impeach me.”
Trump, as he almost always does, also extolled his newest endorsee as someone who will “stand for the Rule of Law,” though Sessler had a recent run-in with authorities. In September of 2022, a month after Sessler’s first congressional campaign came to an end, a code enforcement officer in Benton County named Dale Wilson said that he’d investigated a complaint that someone was living on Sessler’s property without the proper permits. Wilson said that Sessler confronted him and threatened to retrieve a gun and “deal with him” if Wilson returned.
County commissioners sent the once and future candidate a letter a few months later telling him that the actions described by Wilson constituted a felony, adding, “If you continue to threaten Benton County employees, the county will involve law enforcement to conduct a full investigation.” There do not appear to have been any public developments since then.
Another Washington Republican who voted to impeach Trump, former Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, will also be on the Aug. 6 top-two primary ballot as she campaigns for the open post of state lands commissioner. Herrera Beutler’s career representing the 3rd District came to an end two years ago when her Trump-backed foe, Joe Kent, edged her out in the first round, though Kent went on to suffer an upset general election loss to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Herrera Beutler faces one fellow Republican, Sue Kuehl Pederson, who badly lost the 2020 general election for lands commissioner, along with several Democrats. Kent, meanwhile, needs to get past Camas City Councilmember Leslie Lewallen to set up a rematch with Gluesenkamp Perez. Trump has not yet endorsed in either contest.
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